MM Report
ISLAMABAD: Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Major general Sharif Chaudhry has categorically rejected the enduring description of Afghanistan as the “Graveyard of Empires”, offering instead a more dismissive assessment of its neighbour. The country was not a graveyard, he said. It was a playground.
Director General Inter-Services Public Relations made the remarks in an appearance on a local media outlet. He was asked about Afghanistan’s historical reputation as a place where great powers went to collapse. The official pushed back against that framing with visible frustration.
“They said we are the graveyard of empires,” he said, referring to how Afghans often describe their own land. “You are not a graveyard of empires, but a playground of empires.” The comment was a sharp departure from the usual diplomatic language exchanged between the two uneasy neighbours.
It suggested a growing impatience in Islamabad with the direction of affairs across the border. The military spokesman did not name any specific countries when he invoked the idea of a playground. But his meaning was widely understood. He was referring to the competing foreign interests that continued to operate inside Afghanistan, often at cross-purposes with Pakistan’s own security concerns.
Analysts said the choice of words was deliberate. A graveyard implied finality, a place where empires met their end. A playground, by contrast, suggested a space where outside powers engaged in prolonged games without consequence.
The interview came at a moment of heightened regional tension. Pakistan has long insisted that militant groups operating from Afghan soil remain a threat to its own stability. The official’s language appeared to reflect a view that Afghanistan’s rulers had allowed their country to become an arena for foreign meddling rather than a sovereign state.
